


Dead Lovers in the Grave

by twosidedcoin



Series: Geocentrism Theory [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Hurt Klaus Hargreeves, M/M, Protective Dave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-23 07:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18148739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twosidedcoin/pseuds/twosidedcoin
Summary: There was a reason Klaus could never seem to find Dave. No matter how hard he looked, how long he spent off drugs and alcohol and everything in between.Because Dave hadn't died in those trenches.





	Dead Lovers in the Grave

**Author's Note:**

> Say it with me now: Dave is not a plot device to be killed after two lines.
> 
> Also needless to say this is incredibly self-indulgent and not at all canon haha.

It started off as any other normal Tuesday night.

Which- is to say- not at all normal by the average definition of the word but enough so for Klaus that he hadn’t batted on eye until the people in black masks and glowing red eyes were on top of him. And in the past they had been trying to kill him and his family.

This time they didn’t come to kill him. Klaus didn’t know why, couldn’t even discern why they came for him at all. He’d been sentenced to Five’s van as a lookout, watching his other siblings dressed like people who actually had their lives together. Beside him Ben sighed, kicking his legs in the way he did when he was bored.

“How are we looking Number Four?” Diego’s voice piped on one of the monitors they had installed after the not-apocalypse.

Klaus’s gaze flickered over towards the sound, catching sight of his brother creeping along the main area. They were at an art gallery- some party for their sponsors- and they’d been hired as bodyguards because, apparently, the gallery has been getting threats.

It had been a surprise when the man had showed up at their doorstep, asking for the Umbrella Academy’s help considering they hadn’t gone on a mission in years. Excluding the whole stopping the apocalypse fiasco.

“All good,” Klaus reassured, cheeks propped in his hands and he was so incredibly bored but it was sort of his fault he was sentenced to watch duty considering he’d once slept with the gallery’s manager.

At the time he’d thought it would have been funny, pinned against the wall as the man clutched at his thighs and told him how beautiful he was. Ben had clucked disapprovingly before the clothes came off, disappeared after. Warned Klaus of taking advantage of the poor man.

Klaus probably should have listened. At the very least he certainly shouldn’t have left before the man woke up after how much he’d told Klaus he loved him the night before. He hadn’t exactly been thrilled to see him again, understandably Ben reminded unhelpfully.

So, lookout.

Diego still tried to include him, which Klaus appreciated. And even Allison would pipe in every once in a while asking Klaus if there was anything they weren’t seeing. Disappointingly there was nothing. Klaus swiveled back in forth in Five’s fancy chair, so bored he actually felt like he was going to explode.

Ben wasn’t helping. Usually he was more accommodating but felt like Klaus was being rightfully punished. Karma and all that. Klaus had stopped listening ten seconds after Ben had started speaking so Ben had given up and they settled in stifling silence.

Maybe Klaus had made a mistake when he’d decided to go clean. Sober for almost a month now but it’s felt like forever. Ben and Diego seemed to appreciate it and constantly reminded Klaus that he wasn’t alone. They were going to do it together but sometimes, like now, Klaus felt trapped and isolated and on his own.

He needed to get his mind off the hot itching, fingers curling and flexing impulsively. Ben’s gaze narrowed in on it and maybe he got it because his expression darkened. Another thing Klaus deserved, he thinks, the withdrawals. That was the point of addiction after all and Klaus was a glutton for punishment apparently.

“Klaus-” Ben started, interrupted by the van’s door sliding open behind them.

Klaus startled, adrenaline clearing the boredom fog that’s collected over his mind. Red stared back.

“Christ on a cracker!” he exclaimed, fingers squeezing the metal table so hard they went numb.

“Klaus!” Ben shouted the same time Diego asked, “Klaus?”

One second bleed into two and Klaus knew that he needed to move. Needed to do something besides stand there and stare at the people pointing guns at his chest. Ben had edged himself between them, hands tight fists at his side as he waited for Klaus to do something except stare.

Then chaos erupted.

A gun went off, Klaus’s fight-or-flight kicking in as he dropped to the floor wrapped his hands around his ears. Above him the monitor exploded, sparks raining over him. The mixture of his siblings’ voices died as Ben blinked down at him and it took Klaus a moment before he realized the shooting had stopped, only its echoes bouncing around the small space.

“Klaus,” Ben pushed, worried crossed with impatience because they didn’t have time for Klaus to freeze up.

They weren’t shooting to kill, though. Or Klaus would have already been dead, pinned like a fancy butterfly on some rich man’s wall. Instead the closest figure took a step inside the van, closed the distance between the two of them easily passing through Ben easily.

“Klaus,” Ben said again as the butt of the gun sent Klaus reeling backwards, head bouncing off the table’s leg.

The room spun, stars dancing ever so out of reach as it went from silver metal to expansive bright nothingness above him.

“Give him the sedative,” one of the figures snapped.

Black form bending over him, blocking out the sky. Klaus squinted up at the red baring down at him, tasted pennies. He thinks he shook his head, managed out a low protest before something pricked his neck.

He woke up in a bed, stripped to his underwear. Ben was gone.

“Ben?” he asked, voice coming out low and raspy and wrong.

He squinted as he sat up. The wall swirled, white blending on white. As it turned out the sedative wasn’t strong enough to silence the drummer in the back of his skull either and his wrist was itchy. His fingers closed around the spot, picking at the tape.

Klaus looked down and he must be high on _something_ because it took him a moment to realize the long thin plastic tube protruding from his skin was real. It was probably also the reason he couldn’t see Ben or hear any of the usual voices bouncing between his ears, leaving an oddly empty vibration that made him feel less whole than before.

 _Jesus Christ_ his body couldn’t decide if it liked being on drugs or being sober.

He must have been more partial on abstinence, fingers curling around the tube and pulling it free. Red collected, pooling over pale skin and the engraved umbrella on his forearm.

“Ouch. Son of a-” his curse was cut off by the sound of a door opening and when he looked up it was to those black masks and red eyes and this was a new development.

“I thought you said he had been an addict,” one of them huffed as the one beside him closed the distance and twisted Klaus’s arm under the cruel touch, “Ungrateful little prick.”

“I’m actually trying to get sober,” Klaus offered though he knew neither really cared, just felt the need to fill the space growing inside of him.

He was alone, and Ben was gone. His head hurt, light pulsing and making it worst and his body was trapped between gaining a new high and coming off the old one.

“You want me to stick him again?” the one holding him demanded causing the other to pause and the red was so bright.

Klaus reeled, jerked feebly at his trapped limp as he begged, “No. Please. I can’t- I don’t want it.”

The head tilted to the side before the man decided, “Nah. We just need him alive and he’s in no position to fight us. And you’ll be good, right? No surprise tentacles.”

Klaus nodded, jerky movements of his head, as he tugged at his trapped arm once more. Gloves dug into the flesh, shifting bone and sending discolored bruises to the surface. Klaus was afraid he was going to stick the needle back in him anyways, send him back into dreams that were too bright and too vivid and too loud.

“Alright,” the one holding him finally decided as he let him go and stepped back, “Let’s just get this over with. I’m tired of chasing ghosts.”

The other one snorted, red gaze baring down on him. Klaus tucked his arm to his chest and tried really hard not to shrink under the gaze. It was just so hard to think straight nowadays and whatever they’d given him wasn’t making anything better.

“Just a couple more hours,” the one staring at him- hadn’t stopped staring at him- reassured, “and this can finally be placed behind us.”

Klaus rubbed at the sore spot on his wrist, feeling defiance swell in his stomach like a balloon. It was like before- being kidnapped to get to his family- and he hated it then too.

“If you want my brother,” Klaus said sharply, “You grabbed the wrong guy. I’m not- I don’t know if you noticed the first time but I’m not all that important.”

“We couldn’t care less about your brother,” the closest one reassured with a hint of malice in his tone, “Now your dear lover on the other hand has been a real pain in our asses.”

Klaus’s brain stuttered to a stop at the words. _Dear lover._ He didn’t have anyone- couldn’t bring it within himself after Vietnam. Which meant he’d been kidnapped under the false pretense of drawing out someone who would never notice his absence.

Again.

Fuck his life.

-

His kidnappers left without offering him any extra clothes which was rude considering they’d stolen his. When Klaus reminded them of as much he’d been backhanded so hard he tasted those pennies again. Then they left him alone in the white cube with nothing to distract his brain as he reentered the downwind of his forced high.

He refused to lie on the bed on principal alone. Propped his back against cold metal, pulled his legs to his chest and didn’t even resign himself waiting because he knew whoever they were looking for wasn’t coming. He didn’t have any lovers and his family would probably search for him but get bored easily and Klaus couldn’t be certain he’d woken in the same time period he’d been taken from.

It was about an hour later the ground shook. Violent and so real it had Klaus scrambling to his feet, beginnings of hope swelling in his chest.

“Guys!” he shouted, “I’m in here! Diego! Vanya! Someone!”

_Anybody._

The door slipped open, and Klaus stumbled back at the suddenness of it and it wasn’t red that stared back. It wasn’t the angry faces of his siblings, pissed they had to come rescue his scrawny ass when he’d only supposed to have been the lookout.

It was Dave- as beautiful as the day Klaus lost him. Dark jeans and white shirt accentuated his bulging biceps even underneath his green army jacket. A black belt wrapped around his waist, looping at his thighs where he had a gun tucked away.

Klaus actually felt his heart stutter to a stop underneath his ribs, eyes widening in disbelief. He shook his head, stepped away as the one person he’d been convinced he’d never see again reached out for him.

“You can’t be here,” Klaus accused bitterly, “I watched you die.”

“I know baby,” Dave reassured and his face was so soft as his eyes locked onto Klaus with an intensity that made Klaus shuffle uncomfortably, “I’ll explain everything later, but I need you to trust me for right now.”

The ground vibrated underneath Klaus’s bare feet, rolling and shifting in reminder of the other danger. Klaus was still trapped by Dave’s face though, Dave’s outstretched hand as he patiently waited for Klaus to take it. Knowing Klaus would even though this was a trick and would only bring him more pain soon.

Because _Dave_.

Still he hesitated, shook his head. Felt this was unreasonably cruel. He felt wetness slide down his cheek, saw Dave’s Adam’s apple bob as his eyes traced the tear’s path down pale skin.

“Doll please,” Dave begged, fidgeting like he was incredibly nervous about something.

Klaus swallowed past the voice yelling at him as he reached out and took Dave’s hand in his own. It was how he remembered it: warm and strong, gentle like he was afraid of breaking Klaus as Dave spun to lead them down the hall.

“Dave?” Klaus heard himself ask like he didn’t already know.

“I’m here Klaus,” Dave reassured, slowing to a stop and releasing his hand. Fingers dropping to wrap around Klaus’s wrists and bringing them up to his ears as he commanded, “I need you to stay here for a moment. Please. I’ll be right back.”

Klaus didn’t move his hands.

“Dave?”

Dave unclipped the gun at his hip, gave Klaus one last reassuring smile before he turned away and started down the hall. Guns went off, screaming and grunts from the dead and Klaus couldn’t do anything except stare wide eyed at the wall in front of him. Fingers pressed to his ears, useless and numb in ways that had nothing to do with whatever drug they’d given him.

When Dave returned the hard lines Klaus remembered seeing before he left was gone. Melting into the rest of him as he pulled Klaus’s hands from his ears, wrapped warm fingers around the back of his neck so he could pull him forward. Kissed the top of his head, other hand settling against his cheek and he looked so scared. Like he was terrified of breaking Klaus. And the only person who’s ever held him like that was dead.

That had been what Klaus believed.

“How?” Klaus sobbed, bending forward so he could melt into Dave’s arms.

He tucked his arms between them, fingers traced along the cold metal of Klaus’s dog tags and he’d almost forgot- before, after Dave lying there staring up at nothing- that they’d swapped them.

Dave held him, strong and secure, as Klaus began to fall apart in his arms. He buried another kiss into his temple as Klaus suppressed another sob against his chest.

“Dave you died,” Klaus mumbled unintelligently, “I held you as you bled out underneath me. Dave you-”

“I know,” Dave agreed, “and, believe me, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this whole thing. We need to go now though. Before more return.”

Klaus nodded, forced himself to pull back. Dave gave him another smile as he shouldered off his jacket to wrap around Klaus’s bony shoulders before taking his hand once more and hurrying forward. Klaus let him be dragged along.

Neither even noticed the rogue agent sneaking from behind until the bullet burrowed its way in Klaus’s back.

-

The rest of their escape happened in flashes, brain teetering between awareness and fuzzy nothingness. Worse than any high Klaus has ever experienced.

He stumbled, pained noise causing Dave to turn. He remembered seeing the way Dave’s eyes widened and the way his usually tan skin paled so much it looked like it had been smudged with dirt. He remembered the way Dave’s eyes flickered over his head and turned bright with his fury before Klaus fell the rest of the way to his chest.

Dave caught him, one arm wrapped around his back so his palm could press into the wound. Klaus thinks it should have hurt but it hadn’t.

Then he was on the ground, legs useless. Upper body probably equally as hopeless but Dave had him propped up on his knees, cheeks cradled by Dave’s strong hold and Dave was begging and Klaus _got it._ He’d been here once, holding the one person who didn’t think you could live without and knowing you were about to lose them.

Except Dave hadn’t died. Dave was there, openly sobbing as his hands fluttered in his desperate need to save him.

Klaus opened his mouth to speak, warmth choking him instead.

“No. Don’t talk,” Dave whispered, pulling him against his chest and planting desperate kisses against his skull, “You’ll be fine. I’m going to take care of you. Just- hold on a little longer. Please baby. I can’t do this without you.”

Klaus blinked, world rearranging itself so he was staring up at Dave and the roof as everything moved beneath him. Rolled, rocked by waves only Klaus could feel, and Dave’s stream of desperate pleas never ceased.

They chased Klaus into the nothing.

-

Klaus didn’t die. He didn’t even technically die and get booted from the afterlife by the prudent teenage god on the bicycle lamenting how he’d never supposed to have been born to begin with. He was just surrounded by the blissful nothingness for the first time in his life. Then he was awake, lying on a bed and wrapped in quilts.

He had another IV stuck in his elbow, soft cloth wrapped around the wrist he’d had the first one poked into. This time he was a little more careful when pulling it out, thought with slight amusement at how Diego would have hated all these needles if he’d been here.

Except he wasn’t. Klaus was alone, not even Ben to keep him company.

Somewhere on the other side of the wall something dropped, thumped dully against ceramic tile. Klaus swallowed, flashes following him as he rose from bed. He was wearing grey sweatpants that didn’t really fit his thin waist but they were Dave’s and that was enough. His shoulder- the one, he remembered, that had been shot- was wrapped in tight bandages and when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror it was almost shocking how pale he was.

His hair was combed, curling in their natural state against Klaus’s will, and his face had been washed. Dark smudges around his eyes gone and Band-Aid taped against his left temple leaving him the most human looking he’s been in a while.

His footsteps were silent, noise suffocated by the wool socks slipped over his ankles and Klaus idly recalled how Dave always complained about his cold toes. The memory made him smile, soft and real, as he crossed the room to the door.

It opened into a hallway, bathroom at the end. Dave was in the kitchen, still dressed in jeans and white shirt, striped apron tied around his waist. His back was to Klaus and he’d probably been expecting to hear Klaus’s arrival if the way he startled at his own name was any indication.

His look of surprise was quickly swallowed by shameless relief as he gasped, “Klaus you’re awake.”

Klaus nodded his affirmative, didn’t quite trust his voice just yet. Dave closed the distance between them, stepping around the marble island that had been separating them, and just enveloping his whole self around Klaus. Klaus pressed his forehead against his shoulder and let himself be held. If only for a moment.

One moment turned to two and then three and Klaus knew he needed to let go if he was going to get any answers from him.

He pulled back, hand on Dave’s shoulder and asked, “What happened Dave? Not that I’m complaining but how are you alive right now?”

Dave reeled him back. Klaus let him, reprieve bubbling in his chest as he felt those warm lips press into cold skin. He was probably still coming off whatever drug Dave had now given him but couldn’t bring himself to care. Not when everything he’s ever wanted was right there, in his arms.

Then Dave pulled away and promised, “Soon Klaus. First you need to eat. Waffles with honey sausage and whipped cream.”

Klaus’s tongue clicked in pleasure as he hummed, “A man of my own heart.”

Dave’s smile was so sudden and there that Klaus felt his mind reel back in a momentary lapse. He just stood there, staring like a fool, and because Dave was an angel he didn’t call Klaus out on it. Just piled a plate full of food and set it down on the table, gesturing for Klaus to come and eat.

Klaus obeyed, afraid of waking from this dream. Nothing happened as he sat and took the first bite of food though. He didn’t wake back in that white cell or some darkened alley. Dave didn’t suddenly fade away like a bad trip. He remained real and warm and there and it was too much too soon Klaus found himself crying again.

Dave dropped the cup he’d been carrying, spilling orange juice all over the kitchen tile, as he crossed the kitchen in several leaping strides. Bending down so he was crouched in front of Klaus, hands taking his features in their gentle hold as he murmured reassurances and buried secret kisses on the top of his head.

“It’s okay baby. Talk to me. I know everything must be awfully shocking to you but give it a moment. Please doll.”

Klaus shook his head, expression still watery as he tipped it back and asked, “How are you here Dave?”

His hands were fluttering around Dave’s chest, shoulders, arms, neck. Taking in as much as they could because Dave was alive. Klaus watched him bleed out in a trench and yet there he was- alive and breathing and it was almost too much.

Klaus felt more tears slip over his cheeks. Felt Dave’s calloused thumbs brush them away. Felt his lips bury warm kisses in his curls.

“I’ll explain everything but you’re going to have to hear me out,” Dave whispered softly, “Give me an hour before you start yelling or call the mental institution. Please.”

Klaus almost quipped about how his life was one bad day from landing him in the mental institution himself but Dave looked so serious and pained that he just bit his lip and nodded. Dave pulled up a chair so he was sitting so close their knees were touching, pulled Klaus’s hand in his own and interweaved their fingers together.

“First thing first I suppose,” Dave sighed all dramatic and pained like he knew this conversation was ending with Klaus slapping him and calling him crazy before slowly edging, “time travel is real.”

He paused, waited for his words to sink in. Klaus blinked back at him as he realized Dave actually _didn’t know_ and he looked so cute and serious in that moment.

Klaus tipped his head back and laughed.

-

It happened like this:

Dave got shot and should have died in that trench surrounded by explosions and Klaus’s wrecked expression baring over him. It broke his heart, and he wished he could do more except lie there and bleed out and die.

And then the next moment he was awake staring up at mustard colored ceiling with an uncomfortable lump pressed into the base of his spine and hip. He rolled over and a woman was staring back.

“Hello Dave,” she greeted pleasantly like he hadn’t just been in the middle of a war three seconds ago, “I am ever so sorry about all that unpleasantness. As it turned out you’re infinitely more valuable to us alive.”

Dave squinted at her and managed an intelligent, “Huh?”

“You must be confused so I’ll make this as brief as possible. Dave Katz died in that trench in Vietnam. Welcome to your new life in the commission and, if you do everything you’re told, you can retire happily in any time of your choosing.”

Except Dave was a soldier, and he’d left Klaus in that war. Klaus was alive- the woman promised him that much, not much else- and Dave’s heart yearned out to find him once more. Even though he was still a young man and Klaus would be an old man by now- trapped in a world that didn’t understand him.

Dave killed for the woman for a year and a half before taking a briefcase and disappearing back to the time Klaus should have been. Didn’t care how long it’s been or that they would come for him. He needed to see Klaus. Just one more time.

The commission found him first.

Dave wasn’t sure how they knew about him. He’d been so careful to never bring him up in conversation, to protect him from the insanity of it all. Yet they knew and took him, sent a picture of him as young and beautiful as Dave remembered and white static just swallowed his everything.

He killed most of them, he thinks. Would have killed them all if he thought it would bring him Klaus any quicker and even then it hadn’t been enough.

This time Klaus was the one to get shot, crumpling in his arms like a puppet with its strings cut. All long pale limps and eyes dulling with blood loss. Dave brought him back to the apartment, sewed his shoulder shut and prayed it was enough.

Klaus slept through the next two and a half days, still and wilting as gorgeous as the day Dave left him. Looked like he’d finally found the peace he’d been searching for in the war.

“You’ll be okay baby,” he swore to no one in particular, lips brushing against pale knuckles, “They’re not getting you again.”

Was surprised by the vehemence the words came out with, knew he meant every part of it. He’d kill them all and then kill them again if to protect Klaus because Klaus was innocent. Had no part in this life, drug into it because a bunch of assholes had wanted to hurt Dave.

Dave was partially wrong on that last part.

-

“Shit man,” Klaus whispered, soft and warm and there and Dave doesn’t think he’s ever loved anybody more.

“Yeah,” Dave agreed, wanting to reach out and touch him because it’s been so long but Klaus still looked pale and shaky and Dave had just dropped several figurative bombshells in his life.

Which Klaus was taking better than he’d anticipated.

“ _Shit_ ,” Klaus repeated, “I’m so sorry man. I shouldn’t- I didn’t even think of them trying to go back to drag you into this mess.”

“I- what?” Dave asked but Klaus was already moving again.

Rising to his feet and pacing the small space body taut. Agitated by the thought of something and maybe Dave had overestimated the insanity of it all. Then again Klaus has always been a bit odd, it was what drew Dave to him.

And now-

“Baby come sit down. Talk to me. You’re not to blame,” Dave hurried, rising to his own feet and stopping when Klaus turned back towards him.

And Dave couldn’t count how many times the memory of Klaus’s face drew him to sleep. How often he’d pressed his lips to Klaus’s dog tags and whispered promises no one could hear. None of it compared to the thing his body did whenever those vivid eyes looked back at him.

“I’m- I already know about time travel,” Klaus declared, “and I guess now is as good as any to tell you I can also see dead people.”

-

Klaus had been born different.

Dave thinks he’s always sort of known that. Fearless in every meaning of the word and Dave had always thought that his family had missed out when they decided not to treasure him completely and it would have been a true shame if Klaus had died in those trenches.

Klaus hadn’t died and neither had Dave.

And now Klaus was looking at him with the most pitiful expression like he was at fault for any of this and it was too much. Dave wrapped him in his arms and kept him there, feeling the part he’d thought he’d lost- always feared he would still lose- begin to stitch itself back together.

Dave didn’t deserve Klaus not even before he’d allowed those people to turn him into an assassin, but then again neither did the world and Klaus had offered his everything for that.

“I love you Klaus,” he whispered and once he said it he couldn’t seem to stop, “I love you. I love you. I love you so much it physically pained me when we were apart.”

Klaus sniffled, smile lopsided and goofy and he really had captured Dave’s entire world huh?

“Me too,” Klaus admitted, pulled back, “but I need to go back. To my family. You should come with me.”

Dave broke, shattered inside, “I _can’t_ Klaus. Not yet. Please. I need more time.”

He was pulling away, ready to turn around and let Klaus go. Damn it, it wasn’t fair but Dave needed time Klaus didn’t have and _why was everything so determined to keep them apart?_

But Klaus drew him back and whispered, “Okay. It’s okay. I’ll wait and then we can go back together. It’s okay Dave. Please.”

Dave let himself be caught but he didn’t move. Body rigid, didn’t correct Klaus. If he stayed, if they both stayed, then it could be years before they return to the time Klaus had been stolen from but Klaus’s jaw was set and his eyes were fierce and Dave _knew_. He didn’t want to be separated again either. Not when they just found each other after all this time.

“Okay,” Dave sighed because he was selfish and wanted and the world never deserved Klaus Hargreeves anyways.

Klaus brightened, light of his whole damn life, and launched himself in Dave’s arms and all was right in the world for the first time in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking of making this the beginning of a series (obviously of assassin Dave and Klaus being Klaus) but I don't know. What'd y'all think?
> 
> Feel free to shout at me in the comments. I'm very shout friendly.


End file.
